High Performance Coach Development Program

During the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australian athletics coach Nicole Boegman Stewart was selected by the Australian Institute of Sport to attend a High-Performance Coach Development program for female coaches.

The AIS HP Coach Development program for women coaches was run in conjunction with the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) Global Coaches House (GCH) - an initiative that aims to provide common sharing and learning spaces for high performance coaches at major multi-sport events.

The following is a summary of Nicole’s reflections and exeperiences:

The AIS Coach Development Program for women coaches was an exciting opportunity to network with other high performance female coaches from around Australia. It was an opportunity to share information about our coaching journeys, self-reflect, discuss challenges, workshop ideas and strategies as a likeminded group.

The most alarming statistic that was immediately raised as part of forum discussions was that globally only 10 percent of women coaches (in western culture) were represented at a High-Performance level. How can we make change and push for progress?

This was a central theme of the GCH sessions held on the Gold Coast and part of a more broader strategy that ICCE has committed to in developing a ‘call to action’ to increase the number of women in coaching at all levels. 50% of the expert speakers at the GCH were female, leading the way in providing greater visibility of female coaches and building a greater understanding of how we can break down the barriers preventing women from joining the elite coaching ranks.

The Australian contingent representing the AIS High Performance Coach Development Program for women, included eight coaches from different sports (netball, hockey, swimming, rowing, diving,

gymnastics, badminton, and athletics). Coaches were aligned in small self-reflection groups (or pods) and throughout the Commonwealth Games these small pod groups were led by experienced female mentor coaches that included Tracey Menzies (swimming), Penny Liddick (gymnastics) and Ellen Randell (rowing).

In each pod session coaches were encouraged to explore the idea of where we see yourself now as a high-performance coach and how you can position yourselves better to be where you want to be in our own individual sports.

Most of the coaches had athletes competing at the Commonwealth Games - but were not part of the team staff, which is often the case at major championships given the staging restrictions on the number of team positions and accreditations that are available to personal coaches.

While also being able to immerse ourselves in our own sport and undertake observations of coaching performance in a dynamic multi-sport environment like the Commonwealth Games, the program design provided the chance to also view some of the other Commonwealth sports and share experiences with the coaches involved in that sport

Each day we would come together to reflect and discuss our learnings and observations on high performance coaching. We would discuss what resonated with us during the presentations and discussion from the Global Coaches House sessions and how we may take the key learnings back home and implement strategies into our daily work/coaching environments.

“Doubt...is the foundation of all knowledge and the motor of all change”

The key note speakers from the week were excellent and all highly successful in their coaching fields. Although no one was specifically from the world of athletics, the journeys and challenges these world class coaches faced through their careers all a similar message.

The following were common themes across the week:

• The Coach as an Ongoing Learner

• The New Age Coach

• Conscious Coaching

• Coaching Resilience

• Lessons from a Coaching Life

• Leadership in Coaching

• Women Leaders in Sport

There were also presentations from a sports science/ medicine perspective, the health and well-being of athletes and coaches and managing high performance teams.

Sir Graham Henry (rugby), Rick Charlesworth and Alison Annan (hockey) and Anna Meares (cycling) were all standout speakers.

Anna Meares spoke from an athlete’s perspective on the Importance and Value of the Coach. This was particularly moving and had coaches in tears listening to the highs and lows of her career. It reinforced how important the coach-athlete relationships were to her, that it not only helped her achieve her sporting goals but personally helped shape her to be the person she is today.

Some of the key take-home coaching messages:

From Sir Graham Henry (former All Blacks Coach)

• “Keep learning when you are winning”

• What do I need to stop doing?

• What do I need to keep doing?

• What do I need to start doing?

From Alyson Annan (Dutch National Hockey Coach)

• Are we just doing what we always did?

• Understand your strengths and weaknesses - who is going to help you be the best coach you can be?

• Connect with people who can help you.

• Make time to be the coach you want to be and program time for your own learning and education.

From Dr. Rick Charlesworth (Former Hockeyroos and Kookaburras Head Coach)

• Always insist on quality and excellence.

• Aim high and learn from the lows.

• Doubt is good - it is the foundation of all knowledge and the motor of all change.

Conscious Coaching

• Adopting certain styles/approaches in response to an awareness of what will enable the athlete to shift towards higher performance.

• Building performance behaviours to obtain the preferred response and not the typical response.

• Resilience is to bounce back and to return to where we were before, but we need to make a change to move beyond that. Learning skill under pressure versus learning skill under no pressure - who are the thrivers?

Overall the experiences working with coaches and mentors through this program strengthens a realisation of the immense value in connecting with likeminded people, particularly other female coaches.

Female coaches at all levels will continue to develop by investing in sharing their experiences and exploring the challenges of how you balance your lifestyle/family demands while trying to pursue your own personal goals within high performance coaching.

The relational side of sport coaching is key. You need to create your own pathway and know what that looks like as there is only limited spaces at the top.